September in Salus

September 16th

 The morning after the game he'd been forced to miss, Caelum woke up and decided he felt well enough to go to classes. Dr. Nichols had said that if he wasn't up to it he could take a day to rest, but he decided that he'd been away for too long already and he'd rather face his classmates' whispers than stay in his room, alone. Answering their questions about the dragon and enduring their staring at his black eye would be better than ruminating on everything that had gone down in the past few days. He dressed, wincing as his sweater rubbed against his still slightly painful skin, and headed down to the cafeteria. Victoria jumped up to give him a hug as soon as she saw him. "You look so much better!" She noticed his grimace. "You okay?"

"Mostly. The burns still hurt a little, though, and so do the bruises." He pulled up a sleeve to show her the purple-and-blue patches on his skin. Dr. Ken isn't giving me any more of the dolus."

"I think that's for the best. You're tough, Caelum. You'll be okay." Victoria patted him on the shoulder and he winced. "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you again!"

Victoria looked so guilty that Caelum couldn't help but laugh. "It's okay! Don't worry about it." He sat down. "Listen, if there's a silver lining to this its that Dr. Nichols won't be making me go on any more missions until I'm all healed."

"You still want to go on missions?" Eli dropped into the seat across from Caelum. "Why? You almost died."

"Because I, unlike some people, am not scared to risk my life for the common good."

Eli reddened. "I- I don't-" He gave Caelum a scorching look. "You're sweater's on inside out." He quickly stood up and walked away, sitting several tables away.

Caelum scoffed. "That's the best comeback he can give?" He made eye contact with Eli across the cafeteria and called, "What's the problem, Eli? Have you overdrawn your comeback skills?" Several people turned to look. Eli gave Caelum a bitter look and turned his back on them.

"He's right," Victoria said.

"About what? Victoria, it's a Salusian's duty to fight magical threats! He's a coward, he just doesn't want to admit it."

"No, you're sweater's on backwards."

Caelum looked down. "Augh. I hate it when he's right."

Victoria pursed her lips. "I thought you two made up? Didn't knocking the daylights out of each other help you work anything out?"

That was a loaded question, one Caleum wasn't sure he knew how to answer. "A little, I think. We still need to work on it." He tugged at his sweater. "I'm going to go put this on right. See you in Latin." Caelum got up and went to the bathroom to change. Once he was done he looked at himself in the mirror. His curls hung flat against his face, and despite the sleep he'd gotten, there were still dark shadows under his eyes.

Eli walked into the bathroom. Caelum started to sneer at him, then thought better of it, giving Eli only a brief nod. Eli returned the gesture, but silence hung in the air between them.

Caelum made a concerted effort to ignore him, and left without another word. Latin class wasn't as bad as he'd been expecting, and he enjoyed the challenge of translating sentences. Despite having to learn everything he'd missed while he was injured, every word seemed to fall into place.

Just as Caelum was getting into a rhythm, flipping through his book to look up words and conjugations, an alarm went off.

Caelum jumped in surprise. "Drill," he said, annoyed, standing and joining his classmates as they filed out of the classroom.

"I hope it's just a drill," Victoria whispered back.

Caelum's heart was pounding. "Do you think it isn't?"

Victoria didn't reply. They walked down the staircase and across the lawn to the Osbourn building. Their classmates were whispering excitedly. There hadn't been a drill since... Caelum couldn't even remember.

People were flooding into the Osbourn building, and walking quickly across the lobby to the set of double doors under the stairs. The doors had been opened to reveal a supply cabinet with another door at the back. This door was also opened, and it revealed another staircase, so thin that two people couldn't walk side by side. There was a bit of a jam at the door, but within a few minutes, there were no people left in the lobby. The staircase led down to an enormous room that Caelum had only been in a few times. There was another set of double doors at the other end of the room, but these were closed. Dr. Nichols stood in front of them.

Once the crowd of people had settled, Dr. Nichols addressed them. "Salusians, this is a drill. There has been no danger to us yet, but in light of recent happenings, I thought it best to review our emergency plan."

Caelum could feel the tension in the room. People shifted uncomfortably, or exchanged nervous looks with their friends. Caelum was struck, as he often was, by the fact that the entire population of Salus could fit in a room the size of a convenience store.

"Remember, in case of an emergency, come to this room immediately." Dr. Nichols gestured to the doors behind him. "Behind these doors is a tunnel that leads to the basement of a nearby hotel. Be cautious when exiting the tunnel, as that is the only other entrance or exit to Salus, and if used as an entrance, it's accessible to anyone, magical or not, whether or not they have knowledge of Salus. If an outsider should enter it, that would mean deep trouble."

Dr. Nichols adjusted his glasses and smoothed his coat. "Of course, I would hope that we never have to resort to using this exit, but should we ever have to, it's here and you all know how to get here. You can go now. Have a good day."

Nobody moved. People were still staring, wide-eyed, at Dr. Nichols. A few of the younger children were crying.

Dr. Nichols cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to frighten you. This may not be general knowledge, but we've had an outsider enter Salus recently." Caelum felt Dom stiffen next to him. "We don't know how he gained knowledge of Salus, but we have to be extremely careful from now on. As much as I hope that we have nothing to fear, I would much rather be prepared and have nothing happen than be unprepared for an attack. I'm going to do everything in my power to keep everyone safe."

Still, nobody moved. It was as if they were caught in place, tied down by Dr. Nichols' words. Even standing halfway across the room, Caelum could see Dr. Nichols sigh. "We can't stay in this room forever. Please, don't be afraid. If anything happens, we will be prepared. I'll cancel all classes today. Go home and rest. Everything is going to be okay."

Finally, the crowd started to shift. People went back up the steps. Caelum stumbled upstairs, dazed. Until then, the magnitude of the unexplained entrances into Salus hadn't really hit him. The thought that there could be an attack on Salus was horrifying. For all that Caelum complained about living in Salus, he knew that it was the only safe place for those few people with magical powers, and it was all he knew. His entire life was wrapped around the buildings and the people that inhabited the hidden little community.